Intrinsic Value, Instrumental Value, and Questions of Existence

As technology has developed, we’ve always had to question the value of what we leave behind, or more specifically, what we relegate to the new technology. The oral tradition places a strong value on memory. In that tradition, memory is more of an art form, and it is treated as both intrinsically and instrumentally valuable. In the periods shortly after writing developed, being able to recite a text, quoting passages verbatim, was a source of entertainment for both the listener and the reciter.

The ability to outsource memorization is an option for all of us. We don’t have to memorize the majority of things we come across. We just save things to our phones or bookmark them in our browsers. With this option, we can choose to ask what is instrumentally valuable to memorize, and what is intrinsically valuable? Many people might argue that memorizing song lyrics is both intrinsically and instrumentally valuable. It’s enjoyable, and if you’re a performer, you can sing songs without looking at a screen. You can be more present. You can also compound cultural references and inside jokes if the lyrics are stored in your memory. There is a lot to be said for the intrinsic value of memorizing song lyrics.

There is also a lot to be said about personal preference. As a kid, I used to memorize license plates for fun. I loved finding patterns in them and using the patterns to create a meaningful imprint in my mind. There’s also the joy of imprinting images on your mind using brute force. Really, joy itself is an art form, and finding joy in a variety of activities is a matter of skill.

As technology increasingly rapidly advances, not only do we as humans need to contend with what is intrinsically valuable to us, but so do potentially sapient electronic minds.

Let’s call our average human intelligence h. And then let’s call an order of magnitude higher machine intelligence h+1. Whatever h+1 is capable of, it would find h-level challenges completely unchallenging (assuming h+1 is smarter by every measure). So if challenges are inherently interesting and valuable, then h+1 intelligence would not find value in h-level activities, unless the value was some form of relaxation or something other than a challenge.

As adults, we find joy in advancing our skills — for example, in a musical instrument — and we also find joy in teaching them. But if we were stuck in a level 1 piano class after playing and composing masterpieces, we might not be so satisfied. Going back to a baby- or toddler-level understanding of the same activity we already excelled at is boring. And yet, there are things that babies understand that we as adults have forgotten or never understood.

So what is an h+1-level intelligence to do? How does it find joy? How does it relate to h and h+2-level intelligences? And if intelligence will double over shorter and shorter periods, would increasingly sapient creatures be perpetually bored? Or would the h+n intelligence be able to play with the all h+n-1’s at the same time, thus entertaining the h+n-1’s and itself? What will intrinsic value mean for a being who will be outwitted by orders of magnitude in a nanosecond?

If we treat all challenges as merely instrumental, that is, having no value for its own sake, then we’d want to outsource all cognitive and emotional tasks to a better equipped being. But if we treat at least some challenges, such as creating an art piece, falling in love, learning chess, climbing a mountain, or memorizing a body of work, as intrinsically valuable, then we would want to keep those challenge for ourselves. I would even argue that the loss of challenges categorically would make life less worth living. Masters of The Cube (AKA Rubik’s Cube, though many people have contributed to its design and alternatives) will blindfold themselves to increase the challenge. Memory champions will try the same memory feats while drunk. We create impediments in order to experience old challenges anew. Challenges themselves are intrinsically valuable.

For each of us, we have to make sense of what challenges are important to us, and whether they are valuable intrinsically or instrumentally. What challenges are worthwhile? This appears to be a universal question for any conscious creature at any level of intelligence.

For me, the challenge of creating a world in which all sentient and sapient creatures can exist beautifully is the most meaningful challenge I can aspire to. This means all the h’s, h-n’s, h+n’s, have meaningful challenges for their level of intelligence. That is a challenge worth pursuing.

Special thanks to Phoenix McQueen for our conversations on this topic.